At what point did you become interested in detailing?

W

White95Max

New member
Let's all gather around the fire and share stories. :bounce



For me, it was the Maxima. I had a '93 Taurus as my first car, but it was ugly, slow, automatic, and had no options. So basically it was nothing to shout about. I never washed the Taurus for the entire 10 months that I had it. Then I got the Maxima. I spent $6000 on it, and at this point I had a fun, stylish car with every option I could ever want, a 190HP V6, and a 5-spd manual transmission.

I used to wash it every day or two, and eventually my dad said "You should wax that car". So he took me in the basement to show me the bottle of NuFinish he had laying around. He told me to take a couple rags from the table by the sink, and wipe the product onto the paint in small circles. Do the whole car and then take a cotton diaper and wipe it off. It sounds easier than it was. :down Oh yeah and I did this in the sun. :p

After my car was "waxed", I felt like a real bigshot with my shiny Maxima. I went out and looked for other stuff I could use on my car. I bought some car soap (I'd been using Dawn every day in the sun for at least a month), a bottle of Turtle Wax carnauba, and some terry towels (per a recommendation from another Maxima owner). While at WalMart, I gazed at the shiny package that contained the expensive Gold Class wax. I told myself that someday I'm going to buy that. Even if it costs $10.00. haha

After using the TW a few times, I decided to go all out and buy the Meg's Cleaner Wax and Gold Class. I was living large now! I was going to a Maxima.org meet, so I wanted my car to look its best. I also polished the wheels and engine by hand with Mothers mag/alum polish. Little did I know that my wheels were clearcoated and not meant to be polished with a metal polish.

Shortly after that, I found Autopia. And the rest is history. Gold Class every couple weekends, then #7/NXT, then GEPC/EX-P/Paste Glaz, and then the PC came...



And here I am with several thousand bucks worth of stuff now. :)
 
As soon as I got my first car back in 1996 I just couldnt drive around in it dirty. It was nothing special but I liked top keep it clean and was into doing mods in my youth. It always looked the cleanist out off our circle off friends. I then thought about entering a cleaning competiton in the car club but chickened out.



In 1998 I really got serious with the cleaning when I brought my first car of any value ( £4500 gbp) the car was a limited edition and I worked my ar*e of to get it and study at the same time. I really began to get obsessive, washed after college every day or two! The full works inside and out every weekend.



August 1999 was the real turning point entered the Show and Shine Competition in my then car club. Spent a week cleaning the car ( all day everyday !), full on wheels off etc, gutted on the day as it rained all the way there 70 miles, first real competiton didnt know what to expect but came second in class.



From then on the bug really bit, I then strived to get better. I had been always using Autoglym products as they where the best available product in the UK. In 2000 time I then found Zymol and some stuff made by a UK guy called the wax wizard who both took me for lots of money as a student I really didnt have. Started using products like Zymol Carbon etc, and products akin to Show Car Glaze and some Carnuba by Wax wizard.





In 2001/2002 Meguiars came to the UK, Concsumer stuff such as Gold Glass but wanted more...I started to use there stuff and when Googling to find more info on them found this place. A whole new world was found. Kicked my self for the wasted money on Zymol. Managed to obtain Megs pro products direct from Meguiars, S100 through Harley dealers here in the UK. Lowejackson and some other UK owners started to track other US and Botique products down, the likes of Pakshak and Autopia shipping to the UK, aswell as companies Such as Alex with Serious Performance over here bringing bits over here means we now have acess to all the stuff I read about on here.



Personally I then moved up a level in my detailing to entering and eventually winning concours events and now aim to better my skills and car finishes at all times. ( Lots of help and advice from here was a god send). Spending time not just on the paint etc, but the whole car top to bottem. Every nook and cranny. Taking a lot of stick due to my obsession. After working by hand for years finally bit the bullet and got a PC a few months ago and have not looked back!



If spend my time detailing as it is relaxing and enjoyable, as some one once said on here "detailing is my golf" that sums it up 100% for me. It fits in perfectly with my love or cars and bikes and the open road.



I wonder at times though will a car ever just be a car for me, and me treat one as 99.9% of the UK population do????



Liuke others now have more product and money spent than I dare add up!
 
I was like me dad wash it turle wax it and call it a detail. Since the purchase of my 95 mustang gt I have spent my moneys on small performance upgrade. I have always tried to keep it clean looking for the most part. While hanging out at stangnet.com a member posted this site as a "great reference" for shinning up cars the right way. Shortly after I was more intrigued about keeping my car clean insid and out. Thank god I did find this place cause I love my 4 cans of #16 :D for my white stang. I'm still learning and saving for a pc so I can really get down and dirty....
 
um, when I bought a black car *sigh*



My dad and grandpa had taught me all about caring for a car mechanically, as well as that you should wax it etc, but my grandpa's idea of wax was NuFinish. I hated the stuff even when I didn't know why I should hate it. I got the car in winter, so I couldn't really do anything to it, but the spiderwebs and swirls drove me nuts. Too cold to work on the car, I searched the net for the answers. Thus, I found Autopia. Only took about 3 hours for me to feel completely overwhelmed, and I just started writing down product combos that I liked the way they looked. Went from there, and ended up placing a decent sized order from Meg's that spring. Still didn't turn out the way I wanted, and it didn't until I got the PC this past April. Now I feel I can actually call myself a detailer, because I am finally satisfied with the way my own car looks ... almost :)



Anyways, that's how I got addicted :D
 
I guess my detailing bug is more genetic or environmental. As a child I use to watch my father wash and wax his cars and keep them pristine. He was very strict about mechanical maintenence also. :xyxthumbs



To me detailing is just part of my life. From my first bike to my vehicles today.

I haven't always detailed correctly or used the better products but I have always had this need to have a "cared for" vehicle.



My diagnosis was labelled an extreme case of Type-A obessive/compulsive disorder that I must live with. There is no cure. :nervous:



Thanks goodness for this community at Autopia. I no longer feel alone with my disease. Like Richt stated, 99% of the rest of the world seem to not give a darn about their vehicles and here I am Q-tipping a panel seam that no one else even notice that there was grime present or understand the strange activity that I am doing with a Q-tip. :wall
 
Back when my friends and I were getting our first cars we were really into keeping them looking as good as possible. Remember Blue Coral? Man, we thought was the shizzle back in the '70s!! Then came real life, grown up life, and............company cars for many years. C'mon, you don't really think I was going to spend time, effort and money detailing a car that didn't cost me a penny and was replaced every year do you?



Yes, things change in life, and for the past 6 years I've had to buy my own car. Yeah, I know, boo - freakin' - hoo. Get over it. So my first new car was silver because I thought it would be pretty easy to keep from looking crappy all the time, and with weekly trips to the hand wash place down the road, along with their interior vacuum and tire dressing, it did. For a non-Autopian that is.



Then, in December 03, I traded that car for a Graphite Metallic PT Cruiser Turbo, and I run into Gary Kouba on a PT forum. Turns out Gary is a pro detailer in Chicago and sells some rebranded products to his clientele, and the PT community (he's also a PT owner, as well as an Autopian as it turns out). Everybody was raving about his stuff so I called him and we talked, and I ordered some stuff. He turned me on to microfiber towels too. Suddenly I'm additcted. I'm buying storage containers to hold all my stuff. I bought a PC 7424. I bought a second car last October, a '99 Miata, as a weekend toy, and another reason to spend money on detailing supplies. I have at least half a dozen detail supply shops bookmarked. My friends want me to detail their cars. What have I done?????
 
LIQUID GLASS on my parents '88 metallic red beretta,,,I liked 'waxing' it,,,,but know now I was actually 'sealing' it!!!



kept my parents happy, and I got the car lots more w/out arguement!!! \



old school baby.
 
My mother and her sister were my main influences, my dad had some interesting cars but never did much detailing-wise. The women had pretty cool cars and my aunt used Meguiar's stuff on them (they both said it was *so* much easier than Simonize). I first used #7 when I was a little kid, used it on my bikes. I tried different stuff when I got my license in '76, most notably Pro's cleaner-wax topped with their yellow carnauba. By '77 I was back to #7 or #5 topped with #16, using #2, Dupont #7 (!), and a pink polish whose name I forget for marring removal. It was a close call between my black TA with those and my buddy's black Cadillacs (his family had a funeral home) with Blue Coral. Blue Coral wasn't bad at all, made black lacquer look great, but it was a real pain compared to the Meg's combo.



Heh heh, I *still* can't get used to Meguiar's stuff coming in opaque tan bottles, I used so much #5 and #7 in the clear cylindrical bottles that I'll always think of that as the "proper" packaging.



True Confession Time: At one point in the early '80s I decided to get serious about my education and just drove a beater that I took through carwashes :o After I graduated I got serious about my *detailing* ;)
 
I suppose I have been detailing *something* since I can remeber. I think it started with my matchbox cars, then moved on to my bikes.....I had a Redline RL20B it was chrome with black accessories ( I actuallt picked the chrome so that I could polish it). I use to polish every spoke as well as every square inch of the frame with turtle wax chrome polsih. As soon as I got home from a "ride" I would wipe the bike down with towel and store it inside (we lived in a *rough* area).



Once I got my first car (87 civic) when I was 16, the OCD was in full force. Before then I was waxing my parent's cars with Meguiars cleaner wax. My Dad use to wash the cars with a MOP!!!!! :sadpace:
 
ebpcivicsi said:
My Dad use to wash the cars with a MOP!!!!! :sadpace:
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Haha I haven't seen that before, but I was just watching my neighbor trim a tree with a chainsaw, and his black S10 happened to be parked underneath. :rolleyes:
 
It was with my first car that I really got a keen interest with detailing. I suppose my first interest dates back a bit farther than that, when my dad had just got a new set of wheels for his '79 caprice, and we wanted to make sure that everything was right. I made sure that the car was well fortified with the then highly regarded Gliptone paste carnauba wax (a cleaner wax). Dad did tell me about the fundamentals of wax, and the difference between a pure wax and a cleaner wax. Pure waxes were very hard to find back then OTC, even with the legendary Simoniz wax with the yellow can (the brand x wax that you had better not let dry).



Many years since then have passed and now with my current fleet, detailing is even more important to me. My car will make one of the most telling visual statements about what I am about and my character. It also exemplifies my belief that no matter what you drive (for both a daily and your prime car), your visual impact depends on how your car is handled. You can have parity with any car as long as your detailing routine and results are "up to snuff." To me it isn't the most expensive, or the fastest, or even the most stylishly outspoken car that matters. The car with the best detailed results will bring the house down.
 
It was just a little while ago.. We just bought a new Sienna XLE Limited with NAV in Arctic Frost Pearl, and was reading the forums at www.siennaclub.com.. An autopian (toyotasienna, I wonder if that's TRD-22 here) posted a Detailing 101 thread. I was intrigued by the process and attention to detail of the post. I decided to come to this site to see what it was all about, and I got sucked in, sinker,line,pole,boat and all!! :-)



No offense to anyone, but I cannot see myself being a professional detailer, I'm better at something else!! ;-) It'll be one of my hobbies.



This is a big step, compared to when I lived in NYC, I really didn't care about the condition of the car... You wash it, it rains the next day... You wash it, it snows the next day.. And when you park it on the street, well, why bother? ;)



Moving out to Southern California, I would watch my neighbors wash their cars in amazment.. To me, it was like, I think I'll pay 9.95 for the local hand wash place. I thought these folks were nuts washing their cars every other week or so... I washed my car when someone wrote "wash me".. :rofl .... Then I got the addiction from autopia.org... Me thinking my neighbors were nuts, the roles have reversed now when I see them (with the "this guy is nuts" look) looking at me with my PC!! :buffing:
 
For me it used to be Wash and Turtle wax too. I didn't even know what all the other products "out there" were for. I just thought wax was all you needed. Then I purchased two new vehicles in three days and found this site. What an eye opener and I love it!
 
For me it was about a year ago when I was in Galveston. I saw a C4 Vette that looked as though it was painted 30 seconds prior to me seeing it, absolutely dripping wet. I was jealous and wanted my M3 to look as good. I poked around on a BMW forum I frequent and was introduced to what was previously a "black art" to me. I knew I needed to shop around for supplies and came across Autopia. Since I sit behind a computer for 12 hours a day/14 days in a row, I have plenty of reviewing time. I've learned much but still need more behind the pad time to consider myself much good. It's definately an affliction!
 
I wasn't always a clean car fanatic... I drove two S***boxes while I was in college.



I caught the detailing addiction in 1977 after graduating from college and getting my first "nice"car (a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus coupe).
 
I fell into it when I started working at my dad's body shop many years

ago. Adnittedly, My work was nowhere near great, but then I made due with

what I had. Originally I specialized more in interiors, but as of these last

few uears, I've gotten into paint restoration and upkeep.
 
was genetic in my case as well. I was always the anal-retentive clean-freak as a kid. And my dad used to own a body shop (til I was 5 or 6), so I was always around cars. He'd spend a week detailing the car before we went on vacation, only to have it trashed by the time we got back. Once I started driving, my "cleaning" habits just naturally carried over to cars as well. Even in high school, I was always washing & waxing cars for friends, co-workers, & bosses. I worked as a detailer for a Mazda dealership one summer while in college. I was even obsessive about my beaters. I gave them the same attention I gave my garage queens. Like my grandfather says... do for one, do for all!



I'm not as bad as I used to be. One time, I washed my car twice in the same day. Took it out for a drive after spending all morning detailing it. Came across a construction zone (which I couldn't avoid). Was red clay all over the road & they'd just hosed it down. D*%N!!! so, got back home & it was off to the car wash again.



When I had 3 cars, the two in the garage usually stayed pretty clean. Now that I'm back down to 2 cars (for the time being), I usually alternate washing one each week. I wish I knew how people could wash a car in 30 minutes. It always takes me at least 2 hours. I suppose I don't HAVE to go around & dry all the door jambs, lug nut recesses, & under the hood & trunk, but the water's WAY hard here & when it drips out, it spots all over the place.



sheesh....
 
Slick61 said:
I wish I knew how people could wash a car in 30 minutes. It always takes me at least 2 hours. I suppose I don't HAVE to go around & dry all the door jambs, lug nut recesses, & under the hood & trunk, but the water's WAY hard here & when it drips out, it spots all over the place.



sheesh....
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It takes me roughly 50 minutes to wash the car/tires/wheels and dry out the door jambs on a midsize car. It used to take me a good couple hours though. It came with LOTS of practice! :up
 
I have always, always enjoyed cleaning my cars and can remember many years ago washing with a brush and then searching the garage for any scraps of cloth to apply/remove the turtle wax that I ahd bought.



Naturally I remember swirls too and it was my wife who first pointed them out to me! Indeed she wouldn't let me wash her car because of the swirls in mine (oh how things change!)



In about 2001 I had a brand new company car a black golf GTI and I wanted to keep it looking great, a weekly wash with a sponge soon had it nicely swirled but more so after a while it just didn't come up clean anymore with many bonded contaminatnt not being removed by the wash process!



I started to learn more about detailing through websites such as this but it was not until 2003 that I really got serious and was able to finally remove those bonded contaminants with a megs claybar but not the etching left behind! As I learnt more and more I purchased more and more products and eventually a porter cable about 6 -7 months ago. I must admit it is only within the last 12 months or so that I have been really happy with my results and only the last 6 months (PC) that I have been swirl free (or thereabouts!)



I must say the search function on this site is so good I rarely need to actually start a thread as someone else has already asked that question 10 x over!
 
I started detailing my car in Feb this year. My car got covered in industrial fallout at one of my employers clients. I could not get the mess off with washing. (I used carwashes!)



I called in a valleter to do the car. All he did was apply polish over the top of the IFO! I was already a member of the Diesel Driver forum and I asked for advice. I got advice from Autopia members including Brazo and K80. By the middle of Feb I have odered a load of stuff from Autopia including a PC!



Now I'm enjoying the benefits of the "Autopia way" of car detailing. As well as being poorer! Also with a garage full of cleaning products!
 
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